EDWARD THOMAS.

CONTENTS

PAGE
CHAPTER I
Preliminary Remarks on Men, Authors, and Things in Wales[1]
CHAPTER II
Entering Wales[28]
CHAPTER III
A Farmhouse under a Mountain, a Fire, and some Firesiders[41]
CHAPTER IV
Two Ministers, a Bard, a Schoolmaster, an Innkeeper, and Others[55]
CHAPTER V
Wales Month by Month[99]
APPENDIX
A Note on Mr. Fowler's Landscapes, by Alexander J. Finberg[201]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1.The Stack, Holyhead[Frontispiece]
FACING PAGE
2.Summer Evening, Anglesey Coast[2]
3.Yachts, Anglesey Coast[4]
4.Beaumaris—Moonlight[6]
5.The Beach, Beaumaris[8]
6.The Trout Stream[12]
7.Near Menai Straits[14]
8.Near Bangor[18]
9.A Footpath on the Great Orme[20]
10.A View from the Great Orme's Head[24]
11.Old Cottage and Ruins of Abbey, Great Orme's Head[26]
12.Breezy Morning, Llandudno Bay[28]
13.Country Lane[30]
14.A Nocturne, Llandudno Bay[32]
15.Conway from Benarth—Early Morning[36]
16.Near Colwyn Bay[38]
17.Distant View of Penmaenmawr—Early Morning Light[42]
18.Silvery Light, Conway Shore[44]
19.A Mountain Pass—Noon[48]
20.Conway Castle and Quay—Noon[50]
21.Conway Valley[54]
22.Carnarvon, from Anglesey[56]
23.Boddnant Hall, Conway Valley[60]
24.Carnarvon Castle[62]
25.Distant View of Carnarvon Bay[66]
26.On the River Seiont, Carnarvonshire—Evening Glow[68]
27.Bridge, Cwm-y-Glo—Evening[72]
28.Field Path, near Llanrug[74]
29.Windy Day, near Llanrug[78]
30.Morning Mists, near Trefriw[80]
31.Distant View of Bettws-y-Coed[82]
32.The Old Bridge, Bettws-y-Coed[84]
33.Swallow Falls, Bettws-y-Coed[86]
34.Fairy Glen, Bettws-y-Coed[90]
35.Church Pool, Bettws-y-Coed[92]
36.Miner's Bridge on River Llugwy[96]
37.Sunny Field, near Llanberis[100]
38.Welsh Farm, near Llanberis[104]
39.Snowdon from Cwm-y-Glo[106]
40.Snowdon from Llanberis Lake[108]
41.Snowdon from Traeth Mawr[110]
42.Snowdon from Capel Curig Lake—Summer Evening[114]
43.In the Lledr Valley[116]
44.Duffws Mountain[120]
45.Duffws Mountain in Mist[122]
46.Coming Night, near Beddgelert[126]
47.Aberglaslyn[128]
48.View of Moelwyn[132]
49.A Hayfield near Portmadoc[134]
50.Valle Crucis Abbey[136]
51.View of Llangollen[138]
52.A Lonely Shore near Penrhyn Deudraeth[140]
53.The Shore near Harlech—Afternoon[142]
54.In the Woods, Farchynys, Barmouth Estuary[146]
55.Incoming Tide, near Barmouth[148]
56.Barmouth Bridge[152]
57.Misty Morning, near Barmouth[154]
58.A Lonely Shore, Barmouth Estuary[156]
59.View from Bontddu, Dolgelly[158]
60.Thundery Weather, near Dolgelly[160]
61.Near Penmaen Pool—Noon[162]
62.View of Cader Idris[164]
63.Mist on Cader Idris[168]
64.In the Woods, Berwyn[170]
65.Aberdovey[172]
66.Sunny Afternoon, Cardigan Bay[176]
67.A Sudden Squall, Cardigan Bay[178]
68.St. David's—Bishop's Palace[180]
69.The Stacks, near Tenby[182]
70.St. Catherine's Rock, Tenby[186]
71.Old Roman Bridge, near Swansea[188]
72.View near Mumbles, Swansea[192]
73.Pennard Castle, Glamorganshire[194]
74.Old Castle Keep, Cardiff[198]

The Illustrations in this volume have been engraved and printed in England

by Hentschel Colourtype, Ltd.

WALES

CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON MEN, AUTHORS, AND THINGS IN WALES

Among friends and acquaintances and authors, I have met many men who have seen and read more of Wales than I can ever do. But I am somewhat less fearful in writing about the country, inasmuch as few of them seem to know the things which I know, and fewer still in the same way. When I read their books or hear them speak, I am interested, pleased, amazed, but seldom am I quite sure that we mean the same thing by Wales; sometimes I am sure that we do not. One man writes of the country as the home of legends, whose irresponsibility puzzles him, whose naïveté shocks him. Another, and his name is legion, regards it as littered with dead men's bones, among which a few shepherds and miners pick their way without caring for the lover of bones. Another, of the same venerable and numerous family as the last, has admired the silver lake of Llanberis or blue Plynlimmon; has been pestered by the pronunciation of Machynlleth, and has carried away a low opinion of the whole language because his own attempts at uttering it are unmelodious and even disgusting; has fallen entirely in love with the fragrant Welsh ham, preferring it, in fact, to the curer and the cook. Others, who have not, as a rule, gone the length of visiting the persons they condemn, call the Welshmen thieving, lying, religious, and rebellious knaves. Others would repeat with fervour the verse which Evan sings in Ben Jonson's masque, For the Honour of Wales: